Open Storage Jessica Harrison, Bernie Reid and Yokollection
3 – 17 December
Monday – Saturday, 11am – 5pm
This October and November Edinburgh and Berlin based artists exchanged locations and swapped their familiar surroundings for exhibiting, networking and production opportunities in new environments.
Returning from Berlin, with Open Storage Jessica Harrison, Bernie Reid and Yokollection (Francesca Nobilucci & Alexa Hare) will now show their work at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop.
These artists adopt the imagery, materials and methodologies of ceramics, fashion, textiles and design to produce work that simultaneously pays homage to and undermines these disciplines historical basis. Rigorously crafted these objects bridge the gap between functionality and aesthetics, interrogating the hierarchical relationships between fine art, craft and the decorative arts.
Jessica Harrison
Working with materials as diverse as porcelain, embroidery, stone and ink, Harrison’s practice explores the mechanics of perception and the fallibility of observation through an examination of the interaction between the visual and the tactile.
Her work seeks to move away from traditional definitions and distinctions between bodily spaces, looking towards a mingling of skin and space, body and world, to propose alternative re-imaginings of the body, using the simplicity of materials to explore the complexity of the sensory body.
Bernie Reid
Reid had been painting stencils around the streets of his home town of Edinburgh since 1998 and after completing various commissions this developed into a ten year stint as an illustrator. To reinvigorate his love of art he applied to art school. Graduating in 2011 from Edinburgh College of Art in Painting, Reid has had a number of group and solo shows and his practice includes painting, drawing, sculpture and the occasional stencil.
In 2007 Reid formed with designer Beca Lipscombe and fine artist Lucy McKenzie Atelier E.B., an art based interiors company with an intention from the beginning to bring fine art criticality to the realm of commercial design and, by extension, to incorporate the expertise and pragmatism of the applied arts into the creation of art and exhibitions. Reid’s main contribution is his stencil and aerosol expertise and has specialized in painted trompe l’oeil rugs applied directly to floors.
Yokollection
Yokollection is the name under which the artists Alexa Hare and Francesca Nobilucci collaborate. It is a platform for experimentation. Appropriating the methodologies and language of fashion and product design, the artists attempt to explore and question the concept of fetishization and commodification manufacturing very limited series of garments and prototypes.
The artist duo makes one off digitally printed silk scarves as well as other garments and objects. The works are loaned to others (artists and other groups within communities) to wear at events. The artists then encourage people to activate the scarves or objects by documenting themselves and to then send the images back to Yokollection or post to social media sites. This collaboration plays out via call and response collage making, employing both traditional and digital collage but also cut and paste techniques.
